In my group of friends, it was those of a normal weight who were the first to use fat jabs. They would buy Ozempic online, pretending they were obese so they could use this new medication to force their body into fashionably slim shapes.They took it on and off and marvelled, almost a little scared, at the fact they had barely eaten for a week.I was fascinated but also tutting and judgy behind their backs. It won’t end well, I’d say, your face will go. Middle-aged women don’t look great super slim unless they’ve always been that way.So it was a shock when I started wondering if I, too, should be joining them. Why? What changed?It wasn’t about my weight. I have a healthy BMI of 22. And nothing about a normal-weight woman losing pounds, then stones, so rapidly made sense: drooping skin, hair loss, and the sheer embarrassing speed of obvious pharma-assisted skinniness. Just, no.But in the past year, there has been increasing talk of GLP-1 drugs – such as Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy – being beneficial for mental health conditions, as well as those related to appetite, blood sugar regulation and obesity. And there are early signs the drugs have potential for treating what are known as ‘reward system-related disorders’.Conditions such as depression and addiction are linked to dopamine, the neurotransmitter involved in reward, motivation and pleasure. People who suffer from alcoholism especially have responded positively to GLP-1 drugs. Kate Spicer wanted to find out whether a GLP-1 drug could improve her ADHD symptomsHaving been diagnosed with ADHD – also linked to the brain’s dopamine circuits – in early 2024, I was interested to see whether they could also help my symptoms.People with ADHD have impulsivity issues and will dopamine-seek by eating, and are more likely to be obese, though this is something that has never affected me.I first saw the suggestion on Reddit forums; to be clear these were anecdotal internet mutterings, not clinical studies. Some who were taking GLP-1s to lose weight reported noticing their ADHD symptoms were also responding to the drug.ADHD can come with a lot of anxiety, a state of fretting that you know is a sort of madness but just can’t escape. And recent years had not been easy for me. A relationship had ended after 15 years – and, alone and in my mid-50s, managing bills with a whole new life away from my friends, I felt a near constant sense of disaster about to happen.If I’m honest, I was not at all well and close to having a total breakdown. On top of this came the ADHD drugs, which I was just getting used to.Truly great and life-changing on the one hand – the stimulant medications gave me resilience and stability in the face of life’s little storms – but towards the end of the day I would still lie in bed doing Olympic-standard worrying. Though on a good day, my ADHD medicine created a feeling of capacity, purpose and calm, when I wasn’t feeling so positive, they made me feel like a set of keys in a jogger’s pocket, jangly. More and more I wondered, could a low dose of GLP-1 be the answer?Dr Federica Amati, author of The Appetite Reset: How to Eat, Drink and Thrive Before, During and After GLP-1s, says: ‘The most interesting story in the GLP-1 studies right now isn’t weight loss, it’s the promising effects on the brain. GLP-1 receptors are not just in the gut; they are also in brain regions involved in reward, stress, memory and executive control.’ Elcella delivers nutrients – three specific fats that our gut loves – to the colon, stimulating gut cells to release the body’s own GLP-1 She describes the early studies, however, as ‘mixed’.And yet in June, Dr Lenard Adler, a respected adult ADHD specialist at New York University’s Langone Psychiatry Associates, reported that half his patients on GLP-1s have reported improvements in their ADHD symptoms.The ‘I wonder if a GLP-1 drug could help’ thoughts became persistent. Then I heard about a new food-based supplement that aimed to boost the body’s own ability to produce GLP-1 – the natural hormone released after eating.There are loads of supplements that claim to do this – all a bit questionable – but this one looked different. After spending ten years studying the human gut, two researchers at Queen Mary University of London launched Elcella, a ‘natural alternative to Ozempic’.Unlike Ozempic and similar drugs, which use synthetic versions of GLP-1 to activate GLP-1 receptors, Elcella delivers nutrients – three specific fats that our gut loves – to the colon, stimulating gut cells to release the body’s own GLP-1 and another hunger hormone called PYY.Their trials showed reduced calorie intake, but could it also shift my body out of this jangling, as the patients on GLP-1s were reporting?Elcella makes no clinical claims in relation to managing ADHD or its symptoms, nor have they made any claims beyond weight loss, blood glucose management and reducing ‘food noise’.But theoretically, the GLP-1 released could also stimulate the release of serotonin, one of our happy hormones.Three months’ supply arrived: the 750 pills cost £595 – a lot of money. I would take eight every day, an hour or so before morning and evening food.The pills are golden yellow, like an Omega-3 supplement, but encased in a hard sheer shell. After taking my first four tablets, I get on with life, expecting very little from something so innocuous sounding. About 36 hours in, however, something completely unexpected happens: I am extremely cheerful. Noticeably cheerful.I have not felt like this for what seems like, and might just be, years. A cheerfulness that reminds me of when I first moved to London in 1988, and how I would feel walking to university.My heart, mind and whole body shining with hope and purpose.I feel there is no other word: happy. This carried on for a few days, then slowly things returned to what felt like a new normal.A healthy range of feelings had returned. I was no longer absurdly happy but I had a new capacity to move in and out of moods. Anxiety came, yes, and it went. While I was taking Elcella, my dad was very ill. Was I better able to cope? I don’t know; I’ve never lived with a very sick parent before. But the Elcella was not like being on antidepressants. It didn’t flatten my mood.I gave up smoking, too. I used to comfort eat crisps but noticed I was eating far less now. Coincidence? Maybe.But after a few months, I dropped the dose of my ADHD meds by 10mg, and the day became a far smoother ride.While Elcella did a lot, there was no way it could replace the ADHD meds – I didn’t expect it would – but it had a softening effect. My sleep improved in quality, if not quantity. Elcella are not stimulants nor GLP-1 agonists. But these little golden capsules containing three very common fats did something to my system, and I liked them.Sadly, though, I always knew my love affair with Elcella had to end – its cost is prohibitive in my current circumstance.So, I reasoned, I would have to learn to mimic the effect, somehow. While I couldn’t give my gut those same fats – unless protected by a capsule, they’re digested by the body before they hit the gut – I could increase my gut health and, in turn I hoped, my brain.I read Tim Spector’s book Ferment and started making my own kefir, kombucha and pickles as well as focusing on increasing my fibre intake.By the time I swallowed the last handful of four pills after my three-month trial, I had a new and established routine of eating things my gut really loves.The effects of my dietary changes are good but I miss Elcella and that background steadiness that the pills supplied, which my dietary changes can’t quite recreate.Great supplements are a luxury – the designer handbags of our time. My colon thinks that I’m a miser but my credit card just isn’t up to it. Nevertheless, while I was on Elcella something shifted, permanently.The jangling keys in a jogger’s pocket feeling eased. And I have established some new healthy dietary habits, which have stuck. Of course, this isn’t a randomised controlled trial or even a piece of tissue in a petri dish.I tell you, though, even if it is just placebo, it’s a pretty damn amazing one.